Unpleasant Truths
by TwistedKitsune
Summary: Middle-High School. Non-yaoi end. Naruto&Sasuke are friends. Naruto likes Sasuke, more than a friend. Sasuke doesn't. Gaara likes Naruto. Naruto doesn't like Gaara that way. Sasuke makes school hell for Naruto. Gaara and Sasuke hate each other. Confused?
1. Childhood

**This Author's Note is important (and REALLY LONG, sorry) because it explains stuff. Please read this one before continuing, as the story will make more sense.**

**I like fluff (at times), but I wanted to try writing a story that deals with more of…sad love. (Examples: unrequited and seeing the person date someone else, rejection, abusive…Those examples might not be in the story, I'm just explaining.)**

**Before you read, there are a few things to keep in mind:**

—**Sasuke and Naruto are seven years old and there will be many repetitive words in their sentences. This is just to show what their relationship was like. I changed Naruto to liking to stay clean besides when there is ramen, just because I don't want to write about an overly messy person.**

—**Because Sasuke's family is not dead he still acts like his sweet, overemotional self (of which he was like before the massacre.)**

**This is the rewritten version!**

**Edit1: Fixing some mistakes (which I should have done before), changed Itachi from a high school/college graduate to a Freshman. I don't know how hard the first year of high school is, but who cares. Extended chapter—Extra little story near the bottom. Minor additions (like talking).**

**Don't get the summary? Here's a longer description…**

**Sasuke and Naruto are childhood friends. Naruto later finds himself falling in love with Sasuke (and falling hard). Too bad when he confessed Sasuke didn't take it well and also left to go to Japan before answering (they live in America). Eighth grade, when Sasuke gets back, is basically the worst year of his life. Then sometimes along the way, he meets socially awkward Gaara, who somehow falls in love with him, but he still likes Sasuke. Read the story to see details of the drama!**

**Okay, that basically said the main plots/events…but if you read, you'll find out how everything happens. Worth it, right? (I hope so.)**

* * *

"Sasu-chan!"

_Twitch._

"Naruto! I told you not to call me that! It makes me sound all girly!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto. He mustered up his best glare, pointed in the direction of his blond haired friend. Naruto didn't so much as falter, just grinned back brightly.

"But Sasu-chan—" Naruto was smacked lightly upon the head by Sasuke. He pouted and rubbed it with a whine.

A devious grin appeared on his scarred face. (It was scarred from a car accident, from which his parents died in. He now lives with his aunt, Tsunade.)

"There's nothing wrong with saying Sasu-chan!" he said, dancing just out of reach of Sasuke's fist. "I mean, look at you. Your skin is all soft and pale like a girl's." He laughed as Sasuke tried, yet again, to attack him.

"Well, _Naru-chan_," Sasuke replied with a smug smile—Naruto's mouth fell open with shock— "At least I'm not afraid of getting dirty like you are."

Naruto growled. His cleanliness had nothing to do with being girly! He just preferred things to be neat and clean!

Naruto lunged forward, tackling Sasuke to the ground.

They fought for a bit, and ended up nearly on the other side of the park. Both of their hairstyles were messed up, and they each had a few bruises. They collapsed a few inches away from each other on the soft, plush grass.

They lay there panting, and then suddenly burst out laughing.

"Your face looked so funny—" Naruto gasped out through his laughter, attempting to straighten out his now dirty clothes.

He didn't bother with his hair because it was always messy, no matter what.

"Not as funny as yours, I bet," Sasuke replied, smiling.

A big shadow loomed over them.

"Sasuke. Naruto. What were you doing?"

The person tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for an explanation.

"I-Itachi!" Sasuke cried out nervously. Naruto stared sheepishly at Sasuke's brother. Itachi helped his little brother to his feet, and the same to Naruto, who he considered almost his own brother.

"Really? You two are already seven years old and you are still doing things like this?"

"We—it was Naruto's fault!" Sasuke exclaimed in a panic, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto.

Naruto blinked his bright blue eyes in shock.

"Wha—! No it wasn't! Sasuke was making fun of me for liking to be clean!" he yelled out furiously.

"Only because he called me '_Sasu-chan'_ and said I was girly!"

"Well you called me _'Naru-chan'_!" Naruto argued back.

"So? You're way more girly than me!"

Itachi was forgotten in their new argument.

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

Itachi sighed, rubbing his forehead and hoped his headache would go away. These two had caused him more headache than school ever did, and high school was tough. He flicked both of them on the forehead. Hard.

"Ow!" they both whined at the same time.

"You two, shut up."

They were used to being told 'shut up', so they didn't react much to it like normal kids, which Itachi was thankful for. He didn't think he could deal with the two going 'oooooooh' like it was a horrible phrase.

"I don't care who started it," he continued. "I just want to know what I'm supposed to say when they ask what happened to your _clothes_," he said, gesturing to their dirty and torn clothes, "_again_!"

"Oops?" Naruto answered. It had to be their 3rd set of clothes ruined that week.

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke butted in. "We can just buy more, right?"

Itachi rubbed his temples again, the headache flaring up.

"Money doesn't work that way, Sasuke. You don't just go around, throwing away money like that when you could just _take care of your own belongings_!"

They stared up at him with apologetic eyes, a pair of vivid blues and another of bright black. He sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Let's go."

He walked them over to the car and drove them home to the Uchiha mansion, lecturing them the whole way.

Of course, for Naruto, he started humming halfway through and totally forgot what he had heard, causing Itachi to roll his eyes and give up.

He knew kids were hard to take care of, but he doubted there were any worse than Sasuke and Naruto. They could be extremely evil when they wanted to, and Itachi was lucky enough to never be targeted by them.

* * *

Once, they had attacked his—their—father, Fugaku. Well, not attack in a literal sense. They somehow got their hands on hair dye of a brilliant auburn red.

Naruto—he was sure it was Naruto—convinced Sasuke to help him mix it into Fugaku's shampoo.

When Fugaku came out, he was _really_ unhappy to see his once black hair to shine at him in the _ridiculous_ red color (well, he though red was ridiculous for hair, that people with that color should all dye it black; black was much more practical).

He had yelled and ran out of the bathroom, hair dripping wet, and proceeded to ground Sasuke and forbid Naruto from coming over for a whole month.

Of course, they paid him no attention and continued to hang out, Sasuke even sneaking out sometimes just to see him.

So with a heavy sigh he had just made them apologize —which surprisingly, they said sincerely—and let them go.

Itachi _swore_ he heard them muttering about how it was 'too easy', but his parents never believed him.

* * *

"Itachi! What happened to their clothes!" his mother shrieked hysterically. In her mind, she felt that someone had attacked her poor baby.

"Nothing!"

He grabbed a bottle of Aleve© and some water with another long sigh. His life was so not fair.

* * *

_**Please leave reviews and/or suggestions of bullying that you have experience or seen happening. I will give you credit for it!**_

**First chapter done! Sorry for the overuse of "—(long dash)" and/or "-(hyphen)". No drama yet…that's further into the story. Sorry about that too, but at least you got a semi-fluffy chapter.**

**And oh my god, poor Itachi for having to put up with all that!**

**Yay, childish arguing! I still argue like that once in a while with my friends even though I'm fourteen XD. It's fun at times!**

**Aleve© is for headaches, right?**

**Oh and, the 'girly' stuff? Yeah, I'm a girl, but I'm 99.9% positive no guy would want to be called girly. (The 0.1% is in case I'm wrong, haha.)**

**(Ha, my Author's Notes makes this chapter appear way longer than it actually is.) **


	2. Five Hundred Headache

****

Thank you ___brokenfromthepast_ for helping me in planning out the plot! It's been really helpful (and this is the first time I've actually planned it out ahead of time...)

**I'm not sure how long I will keep Itachi in, but he will play a part in the story.**

**The only Japanese I will use is/are the titles they use like "-sensei" and their nicknames for each other like "-dobe" and "-teme". I might use "-chan" once in a while but that's it. I will not make an idiot of myself by incorrectly using a language I don't understand (and you guys would probably prefer it to be that way). **

**The nicknames for Sasuke and Naruto will appear a lot. Don't kill me! It's just their way of speaking to each other, because they are used to it.**

**Oh and, this story should have many chapters since I'm starting from 7****th**** grade and going until at least high school.**

**I love Naruto, I really do. But seriously? Staying with him in a long span of time, for example…ten minutes, is enough to drive even Itachi crazy. And I do not own either of them. Or Sasuke. Or the anime/manga in general. Well, now I feel depressed…**

_**This is the rewritten version!**_

**Edit1: Minor changes, slight additions to the stories. Changes to some talking. Slightly longer, but not by much.**

* * *

Note: Time Skip from eight years old to roughly twelve years old. (Forgot when middle school starts.)

* * *

"Sasuke! Middle school! We're actually going to be in middle school!" Naruto yelled out, swinging his arms wildly in the air.

"I know, dobe. You've only told me about twenty times today," Sasuke replied, staring idly out the car window. The two of them were going to the mall for school clothes, with (poor) Itachi driving them there.

"Well, ex_cuse_ me for being excited, teme!" Naruto shot back.

He then flopped backwards into the seat with a loud 'Oomph!'

"Dobe."

"Teme."

"Shut up you two," Itachi snapped from the driver's seat. Even though they were already twelve, they argued nearly the same as five years ago. He still got a headache.

His mother treated him like their stupid butler or chauffeur, using the excuse of how he was their older brother. (He wasn't even related to Naruto!)

The worst part was he wasn't even getting paid. Rather, he had to pay for all the gas they made him use. He sighed, like usual. He was so lucky they were rich, or else he'd be broke by now from the medicine and gas costs.

Naruto and Sasuke slumped into the seat with a pout on their face. (Though Sasuke fiercely denied the fact that he was pouting.)

Itachi relaxed a bit, welcoming the silence and peace.

Not even five minutes later it was disrupted by a wiggling blonde.

"Are we there yet? Itachi? Are we? Hmm? Are we? Hello? Itachi?"

Itachi let out a silent growl. His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white.

"No, we are not, Naruto," he replied, enunciating every syllable carefully to avoid yelling.

"What?" came an outraged yelp. "When will we get there? Huh? Huh? Come on, I'm bored!"

Sasuke shot Naruto a glare, which he easily ignored.

"Itachi—I'm so~ bored! Bored. Bo-red. _Bored. _**Bored.**_** Bored.**_" Naruto was amusing himself by testing out the word in different accents and pitches.

"Naruto, Shut Up!" Itachi practically roared, shooting a deathly glare in the front mirror. The sheer strength of it caused Sasuke to shiver, even though it wasn't even directed at him.

"Gods, you don't have to be so grumpy about it," Naruto muttered softly. Sasuke felt his mouth twitch upwards, but fought it away. He didn't want to deal with an angry brother. Itachi growled softly again.

Thankfully, God seemed to have decided to save Itachi's sanity, because they soon pulled up to the mall entrance.

"Now go away and give me my three small hours of peace," Itachi demanded. The two of them jumped out of the car and into the building, but before they did he swore he saw Naruto stick his tongue out at him.

* * *

**(A/N: I am not going to describe what they bought, and in the future will not describe what they wear. I'm hoping you can imagine that up yourselves.)**

* * *

Two and a half hours had passed, and the two of them were exhausted beyond belief.

"Food court?" Naruto asked.

"Food court," Sasuke agreed.

After they bought a burger and lemonade for each of themselves, they settled down at an empty table and ate quickly. (Naruto was careful not to get his hands or clothes dirty. How he did that eating a _burger_, Sasuke couldn't understand.)

* * *

Itachi felt his eye twitch. Twice, in fact. His little and his unofficial brother had managed to spend over $500 dollars on clothes.

"What the he—ck," he caught himself in the middle of the curse, seeing as they were only twelve, "were you two thinking, spending that much money?"

They shrugged.

"We liked the clothes," Sasuke supplied, an almost uncaring look on his face.

His eye twitched again. Third time. He faintly wondered if there was a type of medicine that stopped the eye from twitching. Then again, he probably consumed too much already from all the headaches.

"And you felt it was alright to toss money away like that so carelessly?"

"Wasn't careless," Naruto butted in, his blue eyes twinkling, practically demanding him to try to do something about it.

"You two," he gestured at them with his hands in frustration, "shop like freakin' girls."

Their mouths dropped open, and then were snapped shut instantly. He found himself being glared at by two outraged boys.

"We do not!"

He winced. Their voices managed to hit an unnatural high pitch, enough to send cold shivers down his back.

Heavy sigh. He swore they caused him more stress than anything else in his life.

"Whatever, let's just go."

He rechecked the receipt over and over on the way home (mainly at every red stoplight) to make sure his eyes were tricking him.

Sadly, it looked exactly the same every time.

He hoped he wouldn't get in trouble for this one, since he was supposed to actually follow them around in the mall, but ditched them instead.

* * *

"Itachi, how much did they spend at the mall?" Mikoto (Itachi's mom) asked him.

"Not much." _Compared to how much money we have_, he added silently in his head as he slipped away to his room.

* * *

**This was a result of my sudden urge to shop. Haha. I sometimes spend $200 or more. Yeah, way too much, but it's only when I donate a large amount of clothes. I realize there's no Drama in this chapter, but you don't expect me to suddenly plunge into it, do you? (For those of you who do…err— no. Sorry.)**

**I'm being really mean to Itachi, aren't I? Sorry, Itachi!**

_**Remember**_**:**

**Leave a review if: **_1)__**you liked it**_**, **_2)_** you have experienced or seen bullying so I can figure out future chapter (I'll credit the chapter to your pen name), **_3)__**you have a certain minor pairing you want to see (I'll see if it works in the plot), or**__4)_** if you want Naruto to end up with someone (already have someone in mind, but still, you can suggest)**


	3. Old Man

**Now that I think of it, it's probably not more realistic…just less fluffy and fairy tale romantic-ness.**

**I don't remember how seventh grade began (my memory sucks like that, even though it was just two years ago) so everything is made up.**

**I'm trying to make my chapters longer. This one is a little bit longer, but not by much.**

**Kishimoto has promised to give me ownership of Naruto once pigs fly. **

***phone rings* What's that? You saw a pig fly? Really? Where—It was a joke?…..What the hell is wrong with you? *slam phone down onto table***

**Right, so I'm not getting it anytime soon… *sigh…***

**Their 7****th**** grade schedule is below. Skip down to the second line break if you don't want to look.** **(Well, I tried to make it a triple line break, but it wouldn't save on. I don't know why. It appeared, but when I click save, two of the lines disappear.) ****This is just reference for me. It's according to my school schedule, because I'm already used to it. No time included, because…I don't think you really care. We have every Wednesday short.**

**The teachers are in Last Name, First Name basis, and the students call them (first name)-sensei. The school doesn't really have four-hundred classrooms, there's just a bunch of quads (like 100, 200) and each quad has a few classrooms. The four hundred is pretty much all for the 7****th**** graders.**

**

* * *

**

**Sasuke:**

Homeroom—Hijiri Shimon—RM421

Period 1—Language Arts/English—Kamizuki Izumo—RM410

Period 2—Science—Akasun Chiyo—RM413

Break

Period 3—Physical Education—Baki—Gym

Period 4—Math/ Pre-Algebra—Ebisu—RM422

Lunch

Period 5—Free Period (For the sake of my story. 7th grade does not have free period; well, not that I know of.)

Period 6—History/ Social Science—Hagane Kotetsu—RM411

**Naruto:**

Homeroom—Hijiri Shimon—RM421

Period 1—Math/ Pre-Algebra—Ebisu—RM422

Period 2—Science—Akasun Chiyo—RM413

Break

Period 3—Language Arts/English—Kamizuki Izumo—RM410

Period 4—Physical Education—Baki—Gym

Lunch

Period 5—Free Period

Period 6—History/ Social Science—Hagane Kotetsu—RM411

**Wednesday:**

Homeroom, Period 1-3, Lunch, Period 4-6

(Basically, they have Homeroom, 2nd, 5th, and 6th together.)

* * *

"Sasuke! Schedule came in the mail! Guess what! We have FOUR periods together!" Sasuke glared at the overly happy blonde.

"Who said you could look at my stuff, dobe?" Naruto pouted.

"I'm going to see it anyways." Sasuke laughed.

"That's 'cause you'll just whine until I show you!"

"I do not whine!" Naruto whi—argued.

"Do too."-_Sasuke_

"Do not."-_Naruto_

"Do too."-_Sasuke_

"Do not."-_Naruto_

"Do not."-_Sasuke_

"Do too." -_Naruto_

Sasuke smirked.

"Dobe." Naruto's face scrunched in confusion.

"Wha—Hey!" he yelled in realization. "Teme!"

"Come on, we should get everything together. School is in a few days." Naruto nodded in agreement. (It was an hour later before he realized Sasuke had made him completely forget their argument. "Teme!" was heard ringing throughout the large house slash mansion place. He grumbled about it for the rest of the day.)

* * *

Note: Timeskip to the first day of school because I'm lazy like that.

* * *

Naruto stared at the school in wonder. The school was humongous! He couldn't even begin to imagine what the high school was like, as it combined two different middle schools into one high school.

"Naruto, hurry up. We have to get to the auditorium for the assembly."

Naruto frowned —he could tell the assembly would take a while— but followed anyways. At first, Sasuke seemed to know where he was going, but then they ended up in the office.

"Uh…Sasuke?"

"Shut up, dobe." His face was just the slightest bit red. A quick glance at the map, and he walked out again.

After a while, they finally found the audiorium with little trouble (besides Naruto tripping a few times, Sasuke yelling at him to hurry up, Naruto arguing back that it wasn't his fault, Sasuke tripping once, Naruto laughing at him, Sasuke yelling again about how Naruto was a dobe…)

* * *

Naruto glanced at the stage. There was an old looking man there. No, not old **looking.** He was just plain old. You could see liver spots on his head, and his skin was all wrinkly. He shivered slightly.

The old man looked around the auditorium, and seeing that roughly everyone was there, began to speak.

"Welcome seventh graders, to your first year of middle school. My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi and I am your new principal. I would prefer that you call me Kōchō (principal) or Sarutobi-sensei. As it is your first year and first day, this whole week tardies will be excused."

Many students grinned, already planning to make the most out of it.

"That is not to say you can walk in halfway through the period. If you get there, and the teacher decides you've had more than enough time to make it to their class, then they are free to give you a detention."

There was soft murmuring through the crowd.

"Yes, there is detention even today, so you would do best to behave yourself. P.E. detention is the worst because Baki can make you exercise according to what he wants, so I would suggest you behave your best in his class. He isn't the…nicest of teachers."

* * *

Sasuke felt someone push slightly against him. He ignored it, but it kept happening. He whirled around (as best as he could in the crowd) and found Naruto shifting nervously from side to side.

"Stop that," Sasuke hissed. Naruto immediately stilled himself, but a few seconds later, started back up.

* * *

"—most of your classes will be around the same area, to make it easier for you to get from class to class. I am aware you have only had one teacher in 6th grade and before, so this will help you to get used to moving around.

"There are no uniforms in this school, which you should be happy for, as many other schools have to wear collared shirts of certain colors and black or khaki pants. Although you are not required to wear certain clothing, you must still follow the guidelines we have. If you are found to be wearing something not allowed, you will receive a detention. Reoccurrences will result in phone calls home or a suspension—"

* * *

"Quit it, dobe."

"It's so boring," he whispered back.

"So? Just deal with it."

* * *

_Shift…Shift...Shift-_

* * *

Naruto watched the old man—his principal—talk and talk…and talk. He couldn't stop moving around. Hearing the old man drone on and on was enough to make him want to scream. He settled for yelling.

"Hey, old man, how long is this going to take?" Laughter echoed softly through the room, but he paid it no attention, just focused on the old man's answer.

The old man's mouth was twisted into a frown, before he finally sighed.

"Yes, yes, you may go now. Naruto! Not you. Get back here!"

Naruto stopped halfway through the door. His eyes widened in surprise. How did the old man know his name?

"Calm down, Naruto, I don't stalk you."

Naruto chuckled sheepishly.

"Sorry, it's just a little suspicious when someone you don't know, knows your name."

"You're Tsunade's kid, aren't you?" Naruto shook his head.

"Not exactly. She's my aunt. How do you know her?" This caused Sarutobi to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"She's the high school principal. Didn't you know that?" Naruto thought about it. And thought some more. Then he shrugged.

"Nope." Sarutobi sighed again, then scribbled something down on a slip of paper before handing it to Naruto.

"Tardy slip. Give it to your Homeroom teacher," he answered before Naruto could ask. Naruto nodded and went out in search of his Homeroom. He glanced at his schedule. _RM421 with a person called Hijiri Shimon_. He looked around. 224...228...311...

He nodded to himself. He was getting close. (He didn't have the best sense of direction out there.)

307?

He backtracked. After some more walking around, he finally found it just a few classrooms away from the auditorium.

He hit himself on the forehead and then let out a small growl of anger before walking up to the classroom door.

* * *

**Sorry for cutting it short, but I need to think about what they are going to do. Hijiri Shimon (Americanized name is Shimon Hijiri) is a real Naruto character, but extremely minor. So minor you probably never heard the name.**

**Remember to leave reviews! (For bullying, suggestions, or if you like it.)**

**My profile has a **'Currently working on'** line, which by looking at you can roughly guess when the next chapter will be posted.**


	4. Scandalous!

**Thank you, **_**brokenfromthepast,**_** for plotline help, and thanks to the people who reviewed. I know it doesn't look that good yet, but the future chapters will be much better. Right now, my writing skills aren't that good…but I'm improving.**

**Please, if you could, leave a review—even if it's just a few short words, like 'I like this chapter' or something. It encourages me to write if I know people like it. I worked really hard on this one, and it came out mostly nice! Did you see how long this one is? Yay!**

**The names are in Last Name, First Name even though they are in America and not Japan. Don't complain, it's a better way to write it because it sounds better, 'kay? (Think: Uzumaki Naruto or Naruto Uzumaki? I like Uzumaki Naruto better.)**

**Only going to introduce a little bit of characters for this chapter. I'm also only going to follow Naruto's schedule. Please excuse my descriptions of people; I'm trying my best. I've never been that good at describing anything. ****The reason Naruto is so well behaved is because it's the first day of school, and he's just curious about everything, so he shuts up. Plus, I don't think I can write in his usual personality…it's…eh.**

**If you see a part where the writing seems different (like the style, or something) sorry. I got kind of tired. This chapter will be just short little events in each chapter, for them to get comfortable in school (It's supposed to be a school fic, so it needs some school stuff…) Not really teaching, just things that happen.**

**Explanations for the numbered things-ex...(1)- can be found at the bottom of the chapter.**

**

* * *

**

This is in third person point of view, but all thoughts (written like: _'thoughts'_) belong to Naruto.

* * *

The classroom was set up so that the tables were in rows, large enough to fit two people each. All the other students were already sitting quietly in their desks, probably nervous and not wanting to get in trouble. (They had arrived earlier than usual schedule for the assembly.) **(1)**

In the front of the room, there was a man standing there, writing on the whiteboard** (2)**.

He looked to be in his mid-twenties, a bit young for a teacher. Well, at least what students usually visualized (which was an old, mean lady with gray hair in a tight bun, holding a ruler and glaring at them behind glasses **(3)**).

He had brown black hair (maybe better described as holding a tint of dark gray, but not appearing old) with long bangs in the front. The hair in the back just reached his neck. His eyes were a normal dark brown color.

On the whiteboard, which his back was now facing, the name '_Hijiri Shimon' _was scrawled somehow neatly in green marker.

"Welcome to your first class of your first day of seventh grade!" he exclaimed quietly, and yet with a tone that showed he expected to be treated with respect. "My name is Hijiri Shimon, though you may just call me Shimon-sensei instead of Hijiri-san, which I know some of you are taught to use in your family."

Shimon finally spotted Naruto, and gestured him in. Naruto walked up and quickly handed his new teacher the slip of paper.

"Take a seat in the empty spot, please," Shimon whispered quietly.

Naruto saw with relief that it was next to Sasuke.

"What took you so long, Naruto?" Sasuke whispered. "Do you know how hard it was to fight off the fan girls** (4)**?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in mock surprise—though he really had no reason to be surprised.

"Wow Sasuke, first day and you already have fan girls? That's a new record, you know!" It was said quietly, but you could hear the clear tone of teasing in his voice.

Shimon cleared his throat, and they looked forward again.

"Now, Principal Sarutobi has asked every 7th grade homeroom to do this. We're going to go around the room. Say your name and one thing that you like **(5)**."

Annoyed groans filled the room, and Shimon chuckled.

"Yeah, I don't like this game either, but it really does help. You're lucky Principal Sarutobi didn't make it in every class."

"Shimon-sensei," someone spoke up. "How would he even know if we did this or not?" The boy had medium brown hair and a red triangle tattooed on each of his cheeks.

"Uh—" Shimon glanced down at his roster.

"Inuzuka Kiba."

"Well, Kiba…I don't really know how he does it, but we tested it before. Last year in fact. One teacher skipped the game, and Principal Sarutobi made us play it the rest of the day. Took up a lot of time. So let's just do this quickly, okay?"

The class was, luckily, one of the smaller ones, having just about twenty students (Naruto was too lazy to count.)

They went around introducing themselves, but Naruto only caught about a fourth of it.

"Haruno Sakura!" That was the first name that caught his attention and implanted itself into his mind (he didn't really want it there though) because it was spoken so loudly and confident. Maybe also the fact that it was a bit too high pitched for his sensitive ears **(6)**. "I like S—sweet food a lot." Naruto could tell that she was probably about to say 'Sasuke', but corrected herself quickly. Very quickly; it was quite impressive.

Interested, he looked over to the girl, only to avert his eyes quickly from shock. It wasn't that she was ugly—she was quite beautiful by normal standards—it was the fact that her hair was dyed. An outrageous bright pink color, it made his eyes sting. He had not been expecting that. Before looking away, he had also caught sight of her eyes, which were a green color.

"Yamanaka Ino." The next person, who sat next to the Sakura girl, had light blond hair (much different from his own bright, golden blond color) and pale blue eyes (also different from his own deeper colored eyes; like comparing a river and an ocean) **(7)**. "I like shopping." She seemed to be the easily excitable type, but she was sitting there checking her nails with a passive look on her face. He could understand. This wasn't a very exciting activity.

Naruto zoned out until it came to the boy who had spoken out.

"Inuzuka Kiba," he said again. "I like…well I guess I would just say that I like my dog, Akamaru." A dog? Naruto perked up just a tiny bit. He had always been an animal person, finding an odd fascination with foxes and dogs.

The introducing went at a really fast pace, and he was so caught up in imagining what this 'Akamaru' might look like that he suddenly found out Sasuke was speaking.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Well he knew that, of course. "I like being left alone." Well that was quite predictable. Lately, Sasuke had been shutting out everyone but him, and had been developing a colder demeanor. He was glad he had all that time to spend with him, but he didn't want Sasuke to turn into a bastard—different than when he just called him 'teme'.

"Uzumaki Naruto." He said with just a little difficulty, after feeling a nudge, from being in between his thoughts and the real world. "I like eating ramen." It was true. He didn't like it to an extreme, but he had to admit he preferred it over other foods.

The rest of Homeroom passed in the same fashion, and Naruto didn't bother to listen to most of them. Neither did Sasuke. They would probably spend all their time together anyways, given Sasuke's social preferences.

The bell rang, an obnoxious, sharp, continuous _'ding'_s.

"You have…?" Sasuke asked in a hushed tone even though the rest of the room was loud. He didn't want the fan girls to hear him talking. If they thought he was anti-social, maybe he'd be left alone more.

"Math," Naruto completed. "With an…" his nose wrinkled slightly in concentration, "Ebisu person."

"Hn. English."

* * *

The first thing that Naruto noticed when he walked into RM422, the math room, was that there was a person standing in the furthest area from the door (pretty much the front of the room). The second thing he noticed, as he took a seat, was that the person had small, circular sunglasses. Naruto's head tilted slightly in confusion.

'_Are we allowed to wear sunglasses in class?'_

'_And wouldn't a bandana count as a hat sort of thing?'_ was his second thought. It was true; the person had a dark blue bandana on, neatly covering all his hair. The rest of him was also covered in shades of dark blue. He had more of a lanky build, and pale skin like he had never been out before.

'_Maybe he's bald?_'

Naruto decided to voice his question out.

"Ebisu-sensei, are you bald?"

"Of course I'm not bald!" Ebisu sputtered indignantly. There was soft laughter that was quickly stilled when he glared at them. (It was hard to tell with the sunglasses, but having him stare at them like that was unnerving.)

The rest of the period was pretty boring. Ebisu just introduced himself, and told them to call him 'Ebisu-sensei'. Naruto easily figured out why Ebisu chose to teach Math. He was an uptight person that liked strict rules, and Math was just that. (Well, he felt it was because of all the specific formulas and one answer equations.)

The only other thing he did was pass out textbooks and a packet of papers to be signed by a guardian. He then let them watch a movie—surprisingly. Then he clearly explained that movies would only be shown on days where no work could be done; namely, the first and last days of school.

'_Figures.'_

Throughout the movie, which he didn't know the name of, he found his thoughts drifting towards Sasuke. It made sense. Sasuke was pretty much his only friend. His nose wrinkled again in thought. Now that he thought about it, Sasuke was pretty much the only friend he had made.

They hung out so much that Naruto had never really been able to talk to other people. Also, since he was best friends with Sasuke, other kids were nervous to approach them. They weren't exactly clear on the rich thing, but seeing their own parents treat Sasuke with high respect caused them to feel nervous about messing something up when around him.

In fact, one guy named Kitazumi Akihiro, had been rude to Sasuke, and a week later he disappeared.

'_Not really, he just moved. Sasuke isn't that mean. The other students just had wild imaginations….right?'_

Naruto laughed inwardly at himself. There was no way he would, or could, do something like that.

Suddenly, he heard the bell ring. He went off to his next class, which was with a lady named Akasun Chiyo** (8)**, a science class.

* * *

"Sasuke!" he yelped in surprise. He was shot a glare, and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle or stop the yell.

He maneuvered carefully through the crowd (of girls surrounding Sasuke) and took a seat.

"What the hell! Who said you could sit next to Sasuke-kun?" whined a girl. He noticed it was that one pink-haired one, Sakura, who had gotten her name stuck in his head by her abnormal voice pitch.

"Tch. If anyone, then I should be allowed to sit next to him," the light blond, Ino, proclaimed.

'_Conceited much?'_

"This is by alphabetical order. Uchiha is next to Uzumaki," Naruto pointed out, stating it slowly like they were idiots.

"We knew that!" they huffed angrily, not wanting to look stupid in front of their crush.

"How was English?" Naruto asked.

"Hn. Awful. I had it with that pink thing."

"Pink thing? Her name is Sakura."

"And I care why?" Naruto frowned.

"Sasuke, you okay? You've been acting weird lately."

"Hn." Naruto rolled his eyes with a sigh, and then turned to face the elderly teacher. Although she fit the picture** (3)**, she was mostly kind. Until she asked a girl to bring her a beaker from the counter. Apparently, she grabbed the wrong one because the teacher freaked out.

"Put that down!" she yelled. The poor student froze in fear. Seconds later, the beaker clattered noisily on the counter.

"Not like that! You'll break it! Do you not see the liquid in it?" The girl looked close to crying. Obviously not used to being yelled at like that.

Once the beaker was safely on the counter, Chiyo sighed with relief.

"I'm sorry, girl, it's just…that beaker was filled with poison. That certain type, if spilled on you or anyone, would have burned straight through your skin and caused irreversible discoloration to the skin that remained."

"I-I'm sorry!" **(9)**

"Why do you have poison in here?" someone asked. It was hard to tell who, people were asking the girl if she was alright.

"I'm a poison expert. Plus, this is Science, and poison is a part of Science."

Naruto's eyes shone with interest.

"Do we get to learn how to make it?" Chiyo shook her head.

"God, no. I can't have a class filled with chemically burned and/or poisoned students! I'll be fired, and you'll be disfigured for life." Naruto's excitement deflated.

Even after saying that, though, she still showed them some poison and gave a few little demonstrations with the not-as-poisonous poison.

* * *

Break came next. It was okay; Sasuke and Naruto just wandered around the large school, figuring out where everything was. They also chattered about their first period—well, Naruto did, and Sasuke listened contently.

Naruto had to go to English after the break, which Sasuke already went to.

* * *

The teacher had long brown hair, just reaching about the lower middle of his face. He also had long bangs covering his right eye. He was also talking on his cell phone, and Naruto, being in the seat nearest to him, heard half of the hushed conversation—where Kamizuki Izumo (his teacher's name) was talking.

"No…No! Kotetsu! Come on, we have class! What—No! We just saw each other at Break. Kotetsu! You're not a freakin' five year old!

"…..You do know I'm not able to see your 'puppy eyes' from over here, since we're talking on a phone and all…?

"Idiot. Bye, Kotetsu…" The teacher hung up, looking surprisingly pissed and yet happy at the same time.

He saw Naruto staring at him, and cleared his throat nervously. Naruto stared at him for a minute longer, his blue eyes seeming to stare right through Izumo. Then he smiled.

"Kotetsu as in Hagane Kotetsu, our History teacher?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Wh-What? We're just friends!" Izumo said nervously.

"Hm…I never really said you were anything more, but—" Naruto let the sentence hang there, and surprisingly, Izumo's face turned a very slight red, almost unnoticeable save for the fact that Naruto sat _right there_ in front of him.

Izumo cleared his throat again and looked away.

"Ah…welcome to English class. My name is…Izumo…and—_Would you quit staring at me_?" The last part was hissed quietly at Naruto, who blinked innocently.

"But I'm supposed to pay attention to the teacher."

Izumo cleared his throat yet again.

"Right, anyways, I'm just going to pass out papers, and you're free to talk to the people around you. Naruto, can I talk to you please?" Something clicked in Naruto's mind, the way elementary teachers would talk. His eyes twinkled.

"I dunno, _can_ you? I'm pretty sure you have the ability to talk to me."

"_**May**_ I talk to you please?" Izumo rephrased, annoyed. He was rewarded with a bright grin before Naruto stood up and went to his desk, which was quite pointless since it was about two steps away.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Naruto asked, stretching it out to pass time.

"Please do not tell anyone about that conversation I had with –ahem– that person. Just forget you heard it, okay?"

"Heard what?" Naruto asked.

"The—the phone call!"

"I do not know what you are talking about, Izumo-sensei." Izumo sighed.

"Ju—just…whatever. Go back to your seat." Naruto grinned.

"See, I've already 'forgotten' it," he whispered as he walked away. A relieved smile found its way on Izumo's face.

* * *

Gym was bad. Very bad.

No, they didn't really do anything; it was just that the teacher scared the crap out of him.

Baki was a mean individual. The first thing he said was, "Get this paper signed. I don't want to be responsible for any of your accidents."

Naruto shivered; it was like he expected them to hurt themselves, and just didn't want to get fired, or sued.

On the plus side, he was able to talk to Kiba, who was also in that class. He found out that Akamaru was a little white puppy, breed unknown. Kiba promised to show him Akamaru one day, so he felt a bit happier.

'_Kiba would probably be a good friend,'_ he thought. _'He's kind of like me!'_

* * *

He loved his schedule now. He actually had three whole periods with Sasuke, consecutively. (Lunch counted as one to him.)

For free period, they didn't really do anything. It was just…well; they were allowed to just wander around the campus for the whole period.

They just walked around and talked.

Both agreed that Ebisu was weird and probably a closet-pervert, Baki was crazy, Chiyo was okay, and Shimon was okay.

* * *

"Izumo-sensei seems kind of strict," Sasuke commented. Naruto perked up at the name.

"Izumo?"

"Yeah."

"Izumo-sensei and Kotetsu-sensei are most likely dating."

"That's not possible," Sasuke said.

"Why, 'cause they're guys?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"What—no! I…Okay, a little. But more of the fact that they are both teachers." Naruto wrinkled his nose in confusion.

"Well, yeah, that would be why they don't tell anyone."

"How would you know anyways, dobe?" Naruto repeated the phone call he overheard and Izumo's reaction when he realized Naruto had heard.

"That doesn't prove anything."

"Well fine!" Naruto glared. "I'll just ask Kotetsu-sensei later. See what he says!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

* * *

Hagane Kotetsu had black hair, so dark it looked slightly blue for some odd reason, similar to Sasuke's hair color. It stood up in long messy spikes, and he had a bandage across his nose.

Kotetsu was grinning, chattering happily into a cell phone when suddenly a hurt expression crossed his face and he closed it.

"Kotetsu-sensei, was that Izumo?" Naruto asked curiously.

"He says I call him too much!" Sasuke blinked. Was it just him, or did the teacher sound like he was whining?

"I do not call him too much. Do I call him too much?" The questions were fired at Naruto.

"Uh. How much do you call him?"

"Just every period." Sasuke's eyebrow shot up slightly.

"You two…are dating?" Sasuke asked. Kotetsu grinned.

"Yep."

"Ha, told you!" Naruto whispered. Sasuke frowned in annoyance.

"Isn't class supposed to start?" he asked Kotetsu.

"Ah! Right! Class, this is History. I'm Kotetsu. Any questions?" Kotetsu asked.

A hand was raised.

"None? Good. Talk to each other or something." He turned his attention back to his cell phone.

The class stared at him in disbelief, but he ignored it easily.

* * *

Note: School is over for the day; the two of them went to the Uchiha house-mansion.

* * *

Mikoto heard the door open and slam shut, and the sounds of shoes hitting the floor.

"Sasuke honey, is that you? Naruto?" she called out.

"Yeah, Mom?" Sasuke replied cautiously. She tended to worry a lot.

"How was school? Did you make friends? What were the teachers like? Are you two hungry? Want something to eat? I can make you something. Did you get any homework?" Mikoto fired a barrage of questions.

Sasuke frowned slightly, thinking.

"Fine. No. Unusual. No. No. It's alright. No, but you need to sign some papers; are you allowed to sign Naruto's papers too?" he answered slowly, running through the questions in his head.

She nodded (she had an amazing ability of remembering things like that) and took the papers.

"Naruto, you have to have Tsunade sign yours because she's your legal guardian, okay?"

"But she's out—" _drinking_, he completed in his head.

"Hmm, maybe they'll accept it this once. I mean, we're practically family…Okay, I'll call and ask. You two go on upstairs."

They, of course, decided to race up. Not the brightest of ideas.

"Ow! Naruto! You tripped me! What the hell!"

* * *

**An amazing ten/beginning of eleven-page length! Oh my god! Yeah, might not be much for you guys, but I've never written a chapter this long, not even a paper for school was this long.**

**Did you like it? I hope so. Please review! I changed the summary; hope that one is better than the first.**

**(1) The first week of school (at my school), most seventh graders are really quiet and well behaved because they aren't sure how things work. Then after that, they get more used to it, and every gets more chaotic. (Haha, I sound so OLD!)**

**(2) Okay, well, no one uses blackboards and writes with chalk anymore. I'm talking about the boards used to write with EXPO markers.**

**(3) Eh, I don't know. My friend used that teacher thing in one of her stories (that isn't posted anywhere).**

**(4) They just call them fan girls to express their dislike. They are actually quite normal girls—to some extent—that just so happen to think he is cute and/or hot. The girls don't consider themselves to be one, so in a sense it's their own personal joke, and the girls don't realize they talk about them until a few times after…**

**(5) I actually had to play that 'game' on the first day of Seventh Grade, only it was in EVERY SINGLE CLASS. I don't like that one because it's boring, and I really don't need it to remember people. It'll come in time, so who cares?**

**(6) Sakura…she will be the mean, bitchy character…sorry if you like her. She is the easiest to use for the role though, because of her anime/manga attraction to Sasuke. I use to really dislike her because I thought she was useless, but now I'm just sort of neutral. She will act like the beginning of the anime/manga, even though that doesn't happen in real life. (Oh, I hope it doesn't…I have anger issues sometimes with things that annoy me, and would probably end up attacking them. Just kidding! ...or am I?)**

**(7) Same as 5, only replace 'Sakura' with Ino. Never really disliked her, I was always neutral about her.**

**(8) Needed other characters for other grades, so…just go with it. She won't appear very much anyways. Akasun was Sasori's last name, so I just used that. She was also a poison expert, so…well, Science was a reasonable choice.**

**(9) Stuttering—no, not Hinata! They girl just stuttered because she learned she might have almost burned through her own skin with poison.**


	5. Subtle Hints

**Thank you **_**brokenfromthepast**_** for plot help. **

**A review reminded me that I was supposed to work on it, so thank you **_**Goddess of the Innocent**_**! (Even though it's only been two days.)**

**I'm still a horrible writer (or at least, only an okay writer) but I do think I'm improving…Longer chapter, but not the longest…**

**No more disclaimers. Just know that I don't own it, 'cause if I did, I wouldn't be writing.**

**I hate writing in first person, but I'm going to try it for this chapter. It's in Naruto's POV, and might be Out of Character. I don't want a loud, obnoxious Naruto (well actually, I just don't know how to write it, so a 'personality' change it is.)**

**Warning: Sakura-bashing. Sorry if you like her, but everyone dislikes a character, and I dislike her. If you have to, replace her name in your mind or something. I don't know…Also, might have some slight verb tense confusion. Sorry.**

**Oh and, each line break means change to the next period (which goes: homeroom, 1, 2, break, 3, 4, lunch, 5, 6. Each class will be mentioned, partly for me, partly so you know what's going on.)**

**

* * *

**

I sat in my seat. Homeroom. It's been a long week. We didn't really do anything. It was just really boring. Shimon-sensei is kind of nice, though if you piss him off he gets extremely scary. Sort of like Sasuke's dad, Fugaku. Only he's angry like, twenty-four seven.

It's weird. Well, you know how girls almost always like Sasuke? Now, even though they're all in their seats, it feels like their actually right next to us. Seriously. I think it's their eyes. One minute they're staring at Sasuke, and I can practically see the hearts in them. The next, they're staring at me. Or more accurately, they're glaring.

They need to calm down. It's not like I like him or anything. We're just good friends.

Does Shimon-sensei not notice them? It's kind of hard to ignore. I swear you can see flames in their eyes. Especially in the pink haired girl's eyes.

Sakura is kind of pretty. I don't like her much though. Not just because of her high pitched voice and the fact that her hair hurts my eyes.

Okay, yeah, mostly. Who dyes their hair a bright pink?

I don't like her because she's rude. What was it she said the first day of school?

"_What the hell! Who said you could sit next to Sasuke-kun?"_

Chiyo-sensei looked like she wanted to kill Sakura. She could have just asked me to move. Not that I would've, but still.

Wonder what Itachi would do if he met her…

"Dobe. The bell rang."

"Shut up, teme. I know!" Okay, I didn't. But he doesn't need to know that.

* * *

I still think Ebisu-sensei is bald. Why else would they let a teacher wear bandanas in class? I think he sneaks the sunglasses though.

I know it was a whole week ago, but I can't stop thinking about Akihiro from elementary. It's not possible to just send someone away, is it? He had to have moved. I mean, Sasuke can't just get rid of someone because he doesn't like them.

I always thought middle school was hard. I mean, Itachi used to talk about it a lot. But so far, we haven't done anything. Most was just review of sixth grade.

Oh, Ebisu-sensei is passing out some papers. I think he was saying something about them before, but I wasn't listening.

Okay…what's a 'Pythagorean Theorem'?

Turns out that was just a test to see if anyone qualifies for Algebra so they can just skip Pre-Algebra. I'm lucky Sasuke isn't here. He'd probably hit me and tell me how stupid I was.

God, why am I thinking about him? I need to make friends. Maybe since he's not always with me I can find some people to talk to. Sasuke is a good friend and all, but he scares the crap out of people.

Oh wait. Next is Science, which I have with him. Guess I have to wait until third.

* * *

Chiyo-sensei is pretty cool. Better than Ebisu, at least. Wish we could learn to make poison though. Maybe I'd be able to kill the fan girls.

I'm not jealous or anything! They're just annoying! Honestly!

Okay, wow. Sakura and Ino, that other blond girl, are glaring at me. Again.

Stupid to say, but I'm so glad looks can't kill me.

Chiyo-sensei says we're going to pull apart Owl Pellets next week. A lot of girls are grimacing. Ha, wonder why.

"Hey Sasuke, what's an owl pellet?" I whispered. He gave me a look.

"Owls eat a mouse, and then they throw up the bones and fur."

Oh.

Oh, my god.

That is disgusting.

"Don't worry, they sanitize it."

"So?" I whispered back.

"Well, you know. Your cleanliness problem."

I shoved him, but not hard enough for the teacher to notice.

"Teme."

"What—no! I didn't mean it like that, Naruto!" he hissed frantically.

"Sasuke, are you talking?" Chiyo-sensei asked loudly.

His expression changed to an emotionless one instantly.

"Hn."

I think I can hear the girls squealing. Something about how cool he sounds.

'Hn' isn't even a word though…

Okay, ew. Chiyo-sensei had a bunch of pictures of owls throwing up the owl pellets.

Good thing Sasuke sits next to me. I can get him to do all of it. Ha, serves him right.

* * *

The good thing about middle school is that they don't have crappy food like elementary, and at the break they actually sell food.

I rushed off to get in line, only to feel someone pull me back.

Sasuke.

Of course.

"Teme! Let me go!" I kind of sounded like I was whining, but right now, I didn't care. I want food.

"Come on, I want to show you something. Your food can wait." I can practically see that invisible crown on his head. **(1)**

He dragged me along to somewhere.

"You know we only have like fifteen minutes, and then the bell is going to ring?"

"It's not that far away."

He continued to drag me. Literally. He's pulling me so fast I can't even actually get on my feet to walk.

"Teme! Can you stop that, you're killing my shoes!" He released me, and I straightened out my clothes and let out a huff.

Then I noticed that he was gone. I turned around twice, before I saw him sitting underneath a tree. We're somehow on a hill.

"Where are we, Sasuke?"

"Just behind the four hundred quads," he said, his eyes closed.

"Why?" I drew out the word to show my confusion.

"Because it's peaceful here." If it weren't so true I would have hit him on the head. I sat down next to him.

"What are you doing, dobe?"

"Sitting."

"Hn." Looks like he doesn't have enough strength to respond any more.

It _is_ peaceful here. No loud noises, no flashy —and honestly? Blinding—colors. All I can hear is the wind, and the steady sound of Sasuke breathing.

Okay, I'm listening to him breathe. That. Is. Weird.

The bell rings. I hate the bell. It goes on continuously. Kind of like an alarm clock; you know, the ones that chirp over and over until you hit the 'snooze' and fall asleep again?

Sasuke and I get up and then we leave for our next class.

* * *

I think Language Arts has to be my favorite class. That and History. Not the class lessons in general, but the teachers. Izumo-sensei is really funny.

He's talking on the phone again when I walk in. I guess Kotetsu-sensei really wasn't lying about the 'calling every period' thing. This has been what it's been like for a week. He'll talk, the class will gossip around. Ten minutes later, class will finally start. No one is complaining though. And it's fun to watch him, because he gets all uneasy. Only when I do it though.

This time when I walk in, he actually waves to me. I'm not sure what to do, so I just smiled back. Was that a bad thing to do? He seemed okay about it.

"Kotetsu-sensei again?" I ask him once he hangs up.

"Yeah." He gives me a tired smile. "I swear; that guy acts more like a kid than an adult."

"But you love him all the same."

"Ye—" He broke off halfway, a light blush on his face as he glared at me. The blush totally ruined the scariness of it though. I give him (what probably is) a cheeky grin.

* * *

Gym was fun. Baki-sensei let us play dodge ball, and then stopped the class ten minutes before and let us talk to each other. He seems all mean, but he's not that cruel.

Also, Kiba actually remembered to bring the pictures today. He's kind of an air-head. There's this one guy that's always with him though. I think they even have the same schedule. His name was Aburame Shino, I think. Odd guy. High collar jacket that covers half his face. The other half is covered with his sunglasses that teachers, for some reason, allow him to wear. Kiba seems fine with him though. He stood by Kiba as he showed me the photos.

The pictures had a small looking dog, a mixed breed, most likely. The body was white, and his ears were a dark brown color.

"That's Akamaru?" I found myself saying. "Dang, you're lucky. Baa-chan would never let me have a dog. He looks kind of small though."

He ignored my nickname for Aunt Tsunade —seriously, how does she look that young? — in favor of answering my comment.

"He's the runt of the litter, but I like him the best. He should grow bigger later on…"

I grinned at him.

"Well, when he turns to the size of a horse, you _have_ to call me!" He returned the smile. I have to say, something about him seems dog-like. Not in a repelling way, more like the sense that he's friendly and nice. I think it could also be the tattoos and the fang-like teeth he has.

I'm not judging him. It looks kind of cool. Besides, I myself have scars on my cheeks, so I can't really say anything, can I? (I also have a tattoo on my stomach in a swirl design, but no one but me knows. Somehow, I've been able to hide it in the locker room. If Baa-chan finds out, she'll kill me. With just a punch. Seriously. Girls should not have that kind of strength. I don't think even men do. Wait, no. No human does— that's more accurate. She's broken countless tables just by hitting it with her hand.)

God, I'm hungry. Stupid Sasuke. I'll admit that the hill place was nice, but I skipped breakfast thins morning and he pulled me away from getting food at break. Lunch is next, at least.

* * *

As quick as I could, I dashed off to the line while preventing looking like a fool. (So basically, I was just walking at a slightly faster pace than normal.)

Then, of course, Sasuke has to go and pull me aside _again_.

"God, Sasuke, now what?" I sounded rude, I know I did. But I couldn't help it; my stomach was _hurting_ from the hunger. (Oh, maybe I didn't mention that skipping meals has started to become sort of a habit.)

He yanked away with a slightly hurt expression, but covered it so fast. If I didn't know him as well, I would have thought I imagined it.

"Sor_ry_, never mind," he muttered.

"Wait, Sasu—!" I sighed. I'd have more than enough time to apologize later, though…

Yet I found myself chasing after him.

It took me forever to find him. When he hides, he hides well. Too well; it gets annoying at times.

I finally found him, after, what, twenty minutes?

"S—Sasuke…" He turned away. He's acting like I dumped him or something. God. I tried again.

"Sasuke, look. I didn't mean it. I was just really hungry. I didn't get to eat today."

He turned towards me with a frown. We stared at each other. After a few seconds, he sighed.

"Okay, I forgive you." Then he looked at me suspiciously. "When was the last time you ate?"

I turned away to stare in the sky. I've never been good at lying to someone's face. Well, I've never been good at lying to Sasuke's face.

"Oh, you know. Not that long ago. Had lunch." Just as I said it, I wanted to take it all back. I mentally hit myself on the forehead.

"You didn't eat lunch today. Which means—" I think I saw the light bulb go on.

He grabbed me by the wrist and jerked me so I faced him.

"You haven't eaten since yesterday?"

"Been busy," I found myself mumbling.

"With what? We haven't gotten any homework!" I frowned. He didn't have to yell at me.

"Fine, okay? I just wasn't hungry until Break." I saw his eyes widen.

"Oh. Sorry." Evidently, he felt guilty about the whole scenery hill showing.

"It's alright, Sasuke. I still had fun," I said, attempting to reassure him.

"Let's get you something to eat." The bell rang. I smiled sheepishly at him.

"I guess dinner?" He rolled his eyes.

"We have free period. _Dobe_." He added the last word just to spite me. I'm ashamed to say it worked.

"Ugh! Teme! Shut up!"

* * *

**I skipped sixth period for them…Oh, no, don'tmisunderstand. They went. I just had nothing to write about History.**

**Good? Bad? (I think it wasn't that good…)**

_**Leave a review! Do you think Naruto's personality is too off? (Though you need to keep in mind it's AU and the people around him affect him. He's not hated by people, just stayed away from because he hangs out with Sasuke.)**_

_**I'm bored of seventh grade…should I just skip the year? Or do you want some in-school drama (minor character drama, not between Sasuke and Naruto; sorry, I have something planned already)?**_

**If you didn't get the point of this chapter, it was basically what Naruto thinks about Sasuke. He thinks about him constantly, and though he thinks mean things, they are almost always paired with a compliment of some kind. **

**1. Confused? What I meant was that Sasuke was acting like he could control everything, like a king.**

**Students introduced so far: Kiba, Shino, Sakura, Ino, Sasuke, and Naruto.**

**My Author's Note(s) is(are) too long, huh? I need to work on shortening it and writing longer chapters.**


	6. His Childhood

**Guess who's going to be in the story? Gaara! *squeal* I love him! (He's a cute psychopathic killer. What's not to love?) This is a chapter of his childhood, so hope you're okay with everything in italics. And since it's already in italics, the flashback in the story ended up becoming regular text. Haha.**

**I think the ordering of the next two or three chapters (this included) might be off. I'm not sure which way to put it.**

**Thanks to **_**brokenfromthepast**_** for plot help.**

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_Gaara, about seven years old, made it home afterschool with no problem. People never bothered him—they were too scared to talk to him. He was never bullied—he could beat them up faster than they could react. _

_He only ever talked to his siblings. Well, he didn't do the talking, just listened. He never admitted it, but listening to them argue with each other soothed his mind a bit. Just knowing that they were there._

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_He and his siblings—Temari, the eldest, and Kankuro, the middle child—lived in an abusive home._

_Their father had psychological problems, many dealing with anger, but meeting their mom had calmed him down and given him enough self control to force it all away. He was quite calm for the beginning of their lives._

_She died in a car accident on the way to picking them up from school. It caused their father to become an alcoholic. The beer he consumed constantly muddled his mind, making it impossible for him to even attempt to control himself. Not that he even tried, but it would have at least given him a bit of self consciousness and guilt._

_He blamed them, said if they weren't there she wouldn't have gone out. Wouldn't have been hit by the truck._

_Temari had been the first._

_Their father was prone to drunken rages, and he had yelledTemari and suddenly slapped her when she asked if he wanted dinner._

—Flashback, to when he was five—

He was sitting on the couch, consuming yet another bottle of beer. Surprisingly, after all that, he still hadn't developed an out of shape or more overweight body, the one you expect middle aged drunk men to get. He had a solid build, slightly more on the muscular side, and was quite handsome in society standards.

"F-father? Would to like something to eat for dinner?" Temari asked softly, approaching slowly. She was normally quite an outspoken person, but with him, you had to be careful.

SLAP!

Her head twisted to the side from the force. Her cheeks were already showing the red color.

"Of course I want dinner. Don't ask such stupid questions! Hurry up now, go get it!" he said—or actually, slurred.

She ran quickly into the kitchen and grabbed the food, handing it to her father before running back again.

She sat down on the kitchen floor and stared at the ground, willing herself not to cry. A screeching sound, like a chair being pushed out on a tiled floor, caught her attention. Naturally, she looked up to locate the sound.

Under the small table, which was in a circular design, was her little brother Gaara. He stared at her, his head titled curiously. In his hand was his favorite —and only—toy, a scruffy looking teddy bear he had named Shukaku for some odd reason.

He set Shukaku on the floor just beyond the table, and carefully crawled out. Picking up the teddy bear, he walked to her. He looked adorable, holding the toy in one hand, with a sweet yet worried expression on his face. The rings of black around his eyes (which she had carefully applied with her own eyeliner to cover his lack of sleep; he cried at nights when he realized Mom was missing, and now he found it impossible to sleep from habit of staying up when he was little) did nothing to fight the cuteness.

She felt the mouth of the teddy bear press against her burning cheek.

Gaara smiled slightly at her, watching with innocent, teal colored eyes.

"Shukaku kiss it, make it better," he said quietly. She smiled in return, and she gave him a little hug.

He probably didn't know, but that little gesture made her realize she had to stay, to put up with the monster of her father, even if just to protect the innocent little boy.

When Gaara went back under the table —his "castle"— and started talking quietly to Shukaku again, her eyes watered slightly. The "kiss" made her remember Mom, who used to do that whenever she got hurt. She smiled again. Though it hurt to think about her mom now, remembering that happy time helped lift her spirits.

—End Flashback—

_Temari had out up with it all, looking at everything with optimism (how she was lucky it was only physical and not emotional or sexual abuse)._

_Then their father started attacking Kankuro._

_Most of the time, Temari was able to get the attention to herself, which she tried often because he tended to hurt her less than Kankuro (in his twisted, drunk mind, he felt guys would be able to take it easier)._

_She wasn't there all the time though; she wasn't able to. She worked many jobs to support them and sometimes took extra shifts just to buy them small little things, like candy for Gaara (the small but bright smile she got when she gave him some made the hard work feel worthwhile) or maybe a small comic book for Kankuro._

_One time she went home, late because of the extra shift she managed to get, she found Kankuro lying on the bed in his room painfully, with a broken arm and bruised face (that's where the face paint thing started; he would much rather be labeled as weird than have people constantly staring at the bruises that 'magically' popped up)._

_She felt her resolve waver. But she had to stay—she couldn't get legal guardianship for them until she turned eighteen, and if she reported it, they would be sent to an orphanage. Split up; most likely never to see Kankuro or Gaara again._

_When their father targeted Gaara, she felt her optimism die. Many times, she got home to find him with broken ribs, or a broken arm. His sweet demeanor started to fade, and soon after, her cute little brother had turned into a cold person with emotions equivalent to a rock—besides the occasional death glare he shot at anything that annoyed him._

_She took Kankuro and Gaara to work often, just to get them away from the house. But she was scared. Scared that her father might try something worse._

_In just two years, she lost her own will to live, getting by only to protect her brothers._

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_(Note: Back to the part just after the second paragraph of the chapter.)_

_Gaara slipped through the old house quietly, and made it safely to his room without disturbing his father._

_His room probably didn't count as a room, but he loved it. It was his safe place, where his father couldn't get him._

_The room was about the size of an average household bathroom __**(1). **__It had one small window at the furthest wall, with no blinds. He probably wouldn't have used it anyways, preferring to look at the stars at night. He had one mattress on the ground that served as his bed—there was no bed frame. He had two large boxes that he had sneaked in, which held his belongings—which wasn't much. A few clothes, and some eyeliner (not only to cover the dark circles, but because he felt that it made people more afraid of him because it gave him a scarier look. In his opinion it did, anyways)._

_That was pretty much it. No furniture, not even a small stool._

_Shukaku sat on his mattress and he picked 'him' up and petted 'him' slightly._

_He had gotten a broken arm once saving Shukaku from his father. It would make sense for a person to protect themselves instead of a stuffed animal, but Shukaku was from Temari, given to him when Mom died. She had worked hard to buy him the teddy bear, and so he did everything he could to save it. It was his one and only treasure._

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**It's the basic of his childhood (from other AU stories about him that I've read) with a slight change by me. You notice the teddy named Shukaku? And the fact that he actually loves 'Shukaku' and Temari? Oh, and my favorite part to write was the innocent five year old Gaara in the flashback…**

**I decided not to make him a schizo because I'm not sure how schizophrenia works (even with Wikipedia and other research. I just don't understand it. Like, I don't know if they can actually hear their other personality talking in their head like I've seen some people write it as).**

**(1) Average household bathroom—meaning very small. Could also say…hmm…look at your closet—about twice that size. Or maybe two and a half. (Unless you've got a huge walk-in closet, then never mind.) Sorry, not good at descriptions.**


	7. Note

**Important Note!**

Okay...uh, this isn't a new chapter. Sorry!

I've been super busy and have only been updating the shorter stories because I can write them fast.

Also, I'm exremely annoyed by the chapter I'm working on. It just won't come out right.

So, I'll pick up this story in a few weeks.

Thanks for putting up with me and reading up to this point.

I'm just adding in this note so you won't be wondering why there are no updates or anything.

Oh and thanks for all the reviews so far too.


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